Sunday, 27 September 2015

I didn't get many photos today and the best were some flowers. I grunged them up a bit but oh dear just felt a bit boring. Time to try some drastic manipulation. So I tried an app called Effexy which I haven't used for a while. Got an outline from that so it was into iColorama try something, blend, blend again, blend again, adjust. Still not right. Took two versions into Diana. Got something better but still not right. So I took the last version and Deformed it in iColorama and then blended it back with the original, masking some of the areas. Now I have something right.

Thursday, 24 September 2015

Another day beavering away at home and oh heck have been too distracted to go out and take a photo so it has to be something around the house. I took a shot of a knife, fork and spoon to see what I could do. Pretty happy with the result in the end.

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

I went hiking today with my girlfriends in Tai Mo Shan Country Park. Tourists coming to Hong Kong only see all the high rises but Hong Kong is made up of both Hong Kong Island and Hong Kong Mainland plus many little islands. There are swathes of forested area in all these places with many containing purpose made hiking trails especially around the many reservoirs. Today was a good 8km hike and it was hot but not difficult. Towards the end we came across a troop of monkeys. Now I have to say that I have experienced some very vicious monkeys in the past and I am particularly wary of them but fortunately these ones have never been fed by the public so they pretty much ignored us. However, it was only after another hiker strolled nonchalantly through them that I was prepared to carry on. Here are some photos of the day.

Sunday, 20 September 2015

The foyer of our apartment building has been decorated with lanterns and blossoms in preparation for the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival which takes place next Sunday.

From the website www.chinahighlights.com:

'According to the Chinese lunar calendar (and traditional solar calendar), the 8th month is the second month of autumn. As the four seasons each have three (about-30-day) months on the traditional calendars, day 15 of month 8 is "the middle of autumn".

For the Full Moon

On the 15th of the lunar calendar, each month, the moon is at its roundest and brightest, symbolizing togetherness and reunion in Chinese culture. Families get together to express their familial love by eating dinner together, appreciating the moon, eating mooncakes, etc. The harvest moon is traditionally believed to be the brightest of the year.'

I took two pictures and combined them in Diana and then manipulated the result further using Superimpose, iColorama and Snapseed.

Tuesday, 15 September 2015

I'm on my way to town via Hong Kong Botanical Gardens looking to see if there are any new flowers out for my daily photo and this tiger lily and shadow caught my eye. I took the photo into iColorama and tried out the Tone>BWC and BW combos. Decided I liked the BW with colour the best but have included a BW and the original.

Monday, 14 September 2015

I'm back in Hong Kong and during my walk through the Pacific Place mall there are lots of great photo opportunities at the moment. One of the clothes shops has some fantastic flower displays so today's photo comes from this.

Sunday, 13 September 2015

I chose unusual photos for days 254 and 255 in Seoul so I decided I wanted to write a separate blog post of my visit to Seoul.

This is my second visit to Seoul and actually Seoul is really like any other city. Have a look a this photo from my hotel. It could be Hong Kong except the buildings are shorter and Hong Kong has not made such a wonderful use of their waterfront.

Just like any other city there are old buildings and new buildings. Instead of red, yellow or black taxis the taxis are often orange. So I asked myself what are the things that stick out for me in Seoul. Firstly, I find the Korean people here very courteous and polite which is not always so in the modern world today. Secondly, Seoul feels like a people's city and the reason why I say this is because it seems to be built with people in mind. Much of it has been destroyed in wars so most of it is modern. I was very impressed by all the cycling lanes, walking paths and outside gyms in the parks. Also, how much free entertainment there is on the weekends.

Here are some photos of first the modern and the old of Seoul and finally a short video of a quartet of ladies playing on the Saturday, those voices and instruments were just lovely.

Thursday, 10 September 2015

I had rather a fruitless day finding places in Seoul today. Firstly, I tried to get a SIM card with data which makes touring around a city so much easier but unlike most of the other countries I have been to (apart from China) where they are usually easy to get, here there seem to be many more restrictions. So I have resigned myself to the fact that I shall have to be very well prepared for each day of sightseeing.

Secondly, I tried to find a toy store I had located on the Internet and failed miserably in that too. Without internet on the go to check your location or to check your details you can find yourself walking around hopelessly with no way of getting help. Apart from at the hotel nobody seems to speak English. I realised afterwards that I had gotten off at the wrong metro station. One was called Dongdaemun and the other was Dongdaemun History and Culture Park. So I took this photo at the culture park which was one of the few I took. Hopefully will get better shots tomorrow.

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Where am I today? Seoul in South Korea! Actually today is a travel day so we have arrived late at our hotel and the best photo I have for the day (without doing a lot of manipulation) is the rather splendid foyer of the hotel.